Bats About Christmas, a GoosebumpsGraveyard School Crossover
by JudeDeluca
Summary: A crossover between the top two horror YA franchises of the 1990s, R.L. Stine's Goosebumps and Tom B. Stone's Graveyard School It's Dorrie Morrow's first Christmas at Graveyard School and someone wants to give her a gift. Featuring the return of everyone's favorite bat girl from the short story "Bats About Bats"


Disclaimer: Characters owned by Scholastic

A Christmas gift written for a friend, a crossover between the Goosebumps universe and the Graveyard School series.

Most of you probably don't know the series, so a brief explanation. Graveyard School was a 28 book series written by Nola Thacker under the name "Tom B. Stone" in the 90s. It was about a school built near an abandoned graveyard and all the weird, horrible things that happen to the 6th grade students who attend said school.

I reviewed and recapped every book in the series for the website Point Horror since I own the complete collection. One of the last books in the series, "Little School of Horrors" was about one the homerooms at Graveyard School being populated entirely by monster kids. It's one of my favorites in the series.

I did this little fan fic featuring a crossover with Dorrie Morrow, the main character of the Goosebumps short story "Bats About Bats" because she's one of my faves.

* * *

"…and the doctors told us the bacteria infected nearly 83% of my grandma's body, which made this the best Christmas ever."

Mrs. Storch congratulated the tall, almost translucent young man by saying "Wonderful report, Rex." She turned to the rest of the children in the classroom and informed them "Now that this concludes the presentation of our holiday reports, we can now begin our gift exchange and class party." As the students began to rise from their seats, Mrs. Storch quickly added "Please remember, same as I instructed at the beginning of the month, you are not allowed to exchange presents that are cursed, jinxed, tainted, possessed, or capable of granting wishes that will inevitably backfire in horrible yet ironic OR poetic ways."

Phillip Yearling got on the defensive and shouted "For that last time, I didn't know it was an EVIL snowglobe."

"Phillip," Mrs. Storch directed her silver eyes toward the young centaur boy as a couple of kids snickered, "Settle."

The students of Mrs. Storch's sixth grade classroom began to hand out gifts and tokens of appreciations to one another. Some were given out packages wrapped in shiny paper, others had thin envelopes wrapped with gold and silver ribbons, and a few had paper bags decorated in holiday symbols.

In the corner of the classroom was Mrs. Storch's holiday tree, a large plastic tree decorated with all sorts of items to reflect the diversity of her students. She never called the party before December break began a "Christmas" party, and strictly considered the gift exchange a "Holiday Elf" affair.

There was never a more diverse class at Grove Hill School, not-so-tenderly nicknamed Graveyard School by the children forced to attend its hallowed halls of haunted education for what felt like an eternity. Children and monsters from all walks of life were placed in Mrs. Storch's classes, even an odd human or two though such an occurrence was rare. Gorgon girls and ghost boys and boys who glowed in the dark, werewolves and vampires and mummies, oh my!

They were Graveyard School's best kept secret, except perhaps for what really drew the supernatural towards the town of Grove Hill, if the graveyard began the school was really haunted, and if the students truly were trapped in some sort of time warp and had been repeating sixth grade since the 1990s.

As some would say, "Hey, it could be worse. We could be living in Shadyside." Sweet Valley was also an appropriate alternative. Now THAT town was a freakshow.

Ginger Hart stood by her table, holding a small box wrapped in paper adorned with images of bells and holly berries. Despite how freely her friends and fellow students were going around handing out their gifts (So far Griff DeGriffin had received a tacky pair of Christmas-themed sunglasses and Morton Mumford a new pair of earrings), Ginger couldn't find the strength to leave the relative safety of her desk. No matter how much she wanted to give the box to-

"Ginger why're you staring at Dorrie?" Ginger's best friend, Melissa Percy, asked.

"I am not staring," Ginger huffed, a little wisp of smoke coming out of her mouth as she did, and replied "I'm re-reading Mrs. Storch's break assignment on the chalkboard BEHIND Dorrie."

Melissa and the gaggle of snakes on her head turned their multiple gazes towards the board at the front of the class. She said "There's nothing there."

Ginger laughed "I mean OBVIOUSLY I read the assignment when she wrote it down and I'm trying to focus on memorizing it in my head."

"She didn't write it down yet," Melissa retorted.

"I'm waiting for her to write it down."

"She never gives us homework over the break."

"There's a first time for everything."

"Mrs. Storch?" Melissa raised her hand and asked "Are you giving us any homework over the holiday break?"

"January's depressing enough without me having to grade a bunch of reading assignments most of you won't work on until the day before classes begin," Mrs. Storch quickly spoke as if she'd said the exact same thing multiple times in the past. Melissa and her snakes smugly turned towards Ginger.

"Oh go look in a mirror," Ginger muttered.

"Ging," Melissa calmly asked. "Just give Dorrie Morrow the gift."

"I can't just GIVE Dorrie the gift, Melissa," Ginger whispered. "What do you think this is, some kind of world where people can just give gifts to whoever the heck they want like it's some, some gift-giving day… occasion?"

"What's up with Ginger?" Moon-powered super speedster Blue Russell asked as he joined Ginger and Melissa at Ginger's desk, alongside Greta Black and Griff.

"It's nothing," Ginger quickly said, "I-"

"She's too nervous to give Dorrie Morrow a gift," Melissa quickly interjected. Flames erupted from Ginger's mouth and she glared at Melissa with reptilian eyes.

"You wanna tell the entire freakin' planet, Melissa?" Ginger snarled.

"What's wrong with Dorrie?" Blue asked. "As the previous new kid I can safely say Dorrie is all around awesome."

"Great sense of humor and very considerate," Greta spoke, "She's so sweet you could practically eat her up." The rest of the kids gave Greta a wary look of disgust, causing her to say "Oh, oh sure, assume the witch girl is a cannibal just because she called someone sweet. You know what that's called? Profiling!"

Melissa turned to "What do you think, Griff?"

Griff, as the coolest kid in Mrs. Storch's class, silently gave two thumbs up.

"See, Griff thinks she's cool."

"Oh sure she's cool enough," Ginger began, "If you think girls with pale blond hair and twinkly laughs and are good at science and can sprout leathery wings from their backs and fly through the night sky like a ballerina is, is…"Ginger could only sigh, "Amazing."

"Yeesh."

"Ouch."

"You've got it bad, honey."

"So why don't you just give Dorrie whatever it is you got her?" Greta asked.

"After what happened her first day in class?" Ginger shuddered as she remembered. "I looked like a total idiot!"

"It wasn't THAT bad," Blue tried to assure Ginger.

"No, it WAS 'that bad,'" Ginger moaned. "She tried to introduce herself to me and I totally froze."

"Yeah, and you made that face that looked like you had to poop while laughing at something really funny," Greta absentmindedly recalled. "I thought you were just constipated."

"I thought she sat on a thumb tack," Blue added.

"I thought she suddenly realized after she came back from the bathroom she forgot to-"

"WHY DON'T YOU ALL JUST TIE ME TO THE FREAKING SCHOOL ROOF WITH CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, WOULD THAT BE FUN TOO?"

Suddenly all eyes were on Ginger's desk.

"Ginger," Mrs. Storch calmly spoke with a tone that indicated the class threat level was slowly rising. "Problem?"

"No Mrs. Storch," Ginger said.

The teacher stared at Ginger for another few seconds, then went back to tend to Virgil, the large potted plant in the back of the room near Blue's desk. Virgil was trying out the new winter hat someone had given him, topped on the highest section of his leafy tendrils.

"Would giving Dorrie her gift be any more embarrassing than what just happened?" Melissa asked.

"Maybe," Ginger replied. "I dunno."

"Would it help if we were with you?" Blue asked. "For moral support."

"Not really, but thanks," Ginger sighed, "Excuse me."

Ginger clutched the box to her chest as she approached the young bat woman happily chatting with Ralph Kennell the wolf boy.

"…so anyway I didn't hurt them, but they were still pretty scared," Dorrie finished recapping a funny story to Ralph, "But I did tell them I was gonna be a bat scientist like my-"

"D-orrie," Ginger stuttered.

"Oh hi Ginger," Dorrie smiled brightly.

She remembers my name thank you God, Ginger thought.

"I, um," Ginger's hands shook, "I, know we haven't spoken much but I wanted to, to…

Ginger looked behind her to Melissa and the others standing by her desk. Griff gave her a thumb's up and the other three silently cheered her on.

"What's that in your hands?" Dorrie asked. "Is it for me?"

"W-why do you ask?" Ginger inquired.

"Well it kind of says 'For Dorrie' written on the tag," Dorrie pointed to her name, DORRIE MORROW, written on top of the box. Ginger began shrieking inside her head. "You got me a gift for the exchange?"

"Yes!" Ginger practically screamed. "I mean, yeah, if you want it, or whatever. It's cool. If you don't. Not everyone likes gifts. N-not that I'm implying you don't like gifts because why wouldn't you but I'm saying if you don't I'd understand you know what why don't we-"

"Thank you," Dorrie managed to pry the box from Ginger's hands before Ginger knew what was going on. "That's very sweet."

"Oh, well," Ginger took a deep breath and tried to be as suave as possible, "Don't mention it."

"Oh my God she's all over the place," Melissa groaned.

"Aww, her first crush," Greta swooned.

"Good for Ginger," Blue thought.

Griff gave a thumb's up.

"Oh! What are these? Pastries?" Dorrie asked upon opening the box.

"Sort of," Ginger explained as she fell into her more natural mode as a practicing junior chef. "I don't really have experience making cookies or anything, but I heard about a way you could fry stuff like oreos and decorate them with powdered sugar. Frying and roasting's kind of a thing with me."

"Cool, I never knew you could fry cookies," Dorrie removed one from the box and gave it a nibble. "It's good! Thank you Ginger."

"Are you sure?" Ginger asked. "Because if you don't like it I could try something else. Anything you want."

"No no, they're great!" Dorrie assured Ginger. "I'm gonna bring some home for my parents and brother to try, thank you."

"Hey," Ralph Kennell finally spoke, "don't they call fried oreos "fried bats" as well?"

The silence was deafening.

Dorrie gaped at Ralph.

Ginger's face looked as if someone had put her on pause in a really grainy video tape.

Blue, Melissa, and Greta cringed.

"Oh-"

"Ralph-"

"Why?"

Griff gave a thumb's down at Ralph's lack of tact.

"Ahhhhhhahahahahahaha," Ginger began laughing as she took the box from Dorrie and marched straight towards the closet in the back of the classroom and crawled inside, slamming the door behind her.

"Ginger wait!" Dorrie quickly followed Ginger and started knocking on the closet door.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA, NOPE GINGER'S NOT HERE," Ginger replied.

"What? What'd I say?" Ralph asked as Melissa glared at him.

"Ginger it's okay, really!" Dorrie tried to assure her.

"NOPE NOPE NOPITY NOPE," Ginger replied, "I SHOULD'VE JUST SERVED YOU BAT ON A STICK MAYBE THAT WOULD'VE BEEN BETTER."

"They're just cookies, Ginger," Dorrie answered. "I don't think they were actual bats or anything, really!"

"YOU ALREADY THOUGHT I WAS WEIRD AFTER THAT LOOK I GAVE YOU THE FIRST DAY IN CLASS," Ginger rambled, "AND NOW I DO THIS."

"…would it help if I said I was glad you talked to me again?" Dorrie quietly asked.

"Huh?" Ginger had finally lowered her voice.

"I got that you might've been nervous when we first spoke, so I wanted to give some space until you felt comfortable enough to try again," Dorrie explained. "But after a while I was afraid you really didn't like me. I was so happy you finally spoke to me just now. You're so cool."

"You think I'M cool?"

"Well yeah, you're practically a master chef and you're still in grade school," Dorrie earnestly responded without false praise. "I can't even put butter on a piece of toast with destroying it. I think it's great you learned how to do stuff like that on your own."

The closet remained quiet, until the door knob slowly began to turn. Ginger poked her head out of the closet and said "You wanna maybe, I dunno, come over to my house some time and I could teach you a couple of easy cooking tricks?"

"You mean, you want to make something with me?" Dorrie asked. "Together?"

"Together," Ginger repeated as she handed the cookies back to Dorrie, "If you want."

Dorrie smiled and said "I'd like that very much."

Blue, Melissa, Griff and Greta watched as Dorrie and Ginger began to chat near Dorrie's table.

"Aww," Blue and Greta said together.

"Yeah, Ging is just a big softie deep down," Melissa said while Griff gave the two girls a thumb's up.

"Guys you gotta help!" Their twitchy classmate Tim just ran up to Blue. "I just got a letter saying I'm gonna be visited by three ghosts to learn the true meaning of Christmas!"

"Tim shh, this is about Ginger and Dorrie."


End file.
